*Senate Rationalises Alleged N3tn Budget Padding
*Ningi Suspended, Resigns As Northern Senators’ Forum Chairman
MORE revelations emerged at the Senate plenary on Tuesday, March 12, indicating that senior senators got N500million each for their constituency projects in this year’s budget passed by the National Assembly.
By Senate rules, any lawmaker who has spent at least a term in the House of Representatives or Senate is considered a senior or ranking senator and there are at least 34 of such senators in the current 10th Senate.
With each allocated N500milion, the ranking senators could be receiving a total of N17billion as their constituency projects votes.
The startling revelation came when Senator Jarigbe Jarigbe (PDP, Cross River North) during the debate of the motion on breach of privilege, moved by Senator Olamilekan Adeola (APC Ogun West), against Senator Abdul Ningi (PDP, Bauchi Central), over Ningi’s interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation (Hausa Services), where he alleged that senior senators got N500million each.
Ningi was subsequently suspended for three months, even as he also resigned as the Chairman of the Northern Senators’ Forum.
Jarigbe’s disclosure led to a rowdy session, with some senators denying collecting the amount. But Jarigbe later clarified that the money was for constituency projects, not for the senators’ personal palliatives.
Adeola, under Orders 9, 10, 41 and 51, moved a motion of privilege and issue of national importance against Ningi over his interview, where he alleged that N3.7trillion was not tied to specific projects in the budget.
At a press conference on Monday, March 11, Ningi insisted on the allegation, saying he was not afraid of being suspended.
Jarigbe, in his contribution to the debate, said issues about the said N3.7trillion alleged by Ningi had been clarified under the Government Owned Enterprises (GOEs) and the first line charge, adding: “I thought this issue should have ended when the chairman of the Committee on Appropriation explained that the N3.7trillion was under GOEs and the first line charge.
“That explains everything.We are going back and forth on this issue and coming up with the issue of budget and individual issues concerning what comes into our various constituencies.
“If we want to go into those issues, all of us are culpable. Some senators here, the so-called senior senators, got N500million each. I am a ranking senator, but I didn’t get it. Did I go to the press? Most of you here got it.”
But at another opportunity to speak, Jarigbe clarified that it was Ningi that gave him the figures, noting: “This is an important clarification. I was speaking when the microphone went off. I was told by Ningi that some ranking senators got N500million.
“Ningi came to me and said that there were discrepancies in the budget and I told him that let’s go to the Senate President. Senator Adeola has cleared the air on the N3trillion, so there is no padding anywhere.
“Senator Ningi told me that he got N500million worth of projects in the budget. I said Senator Ningi shouldn’t be the one speaking about certain things.”
Speaking after plenary, Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Publicity, Yemi Adaramodu, explained further that the N3trillion alleged to be padded in the budget was actually statutory transfers to first line charge agencies of government not domiciled in the ministries.
On the suspension of Ningi over alleged budget padding, Adaramodu said the 10th Senate needed to be treasured as pillar of democracy and would only do what would promote national interest, insisting there was nothing like budget padding and the false narrative on N3trillion padding was a demonstration of error of arithmetic and innocent of procedure by Ningi.
He stressed that the N3 trillion is for statutory transfers of government agencies on the first lines charges, listing the agencies to include Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC); Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC); Public Complaints Commission (PCC); National Judicial Council (NJC); North East Development (NEDC); Commission Niger Delta Development Commission Commission (NDDC), among others.
He dismissed the issue of provision of N500million as constituency fund to senators, describing the allegation as a ferry tale and urging journalists to study the budget to investigate allocations to the National Assembly.
Adaramodu said the issue of budget padding was a negative connotation and a serious crime in budgeting; hence the senate didn’t take it lightly, adding: “It is a matter of integrity, issue of budget has been put to rest, as the protagonists of the budget padding were called to substantiate and they could not prove it, but the allegations cannot just go without been attended to.
“The Appropriation Act is a public document and when it was done, it was done in the public glare and it was N28.77trillion and so for some to say N25trillion was what was approved is scary.
“Statutory transfers for agencies on first line charges, that are not domiciled in the ministries, was what Ningi said was padded, that the allocation cannot be traced.”
He emphasised that the N3trillion was not padded or missing, but was for agencies of government placed on first line charge, noting that the allegation that a section of the country was allocated more funds than other regions was not put in right perspective, as allocations was done sector by sector.
Meanwhile, Ningi, in a letter addressed to the Secretary of NSF on Tuesday, March 12, in Abuja said: “I will like to resign my position as Chairman, Northern Senators’ Forum.
“This is, of course, necessitated by the unfolding events in the National Assembly, the North and the nation at large.
“I will like to specially thank members of the Forum for the opportunity given to me for the last eight months to spearhead this very important forum.
“I believe this Forum is very important and fundamental to the progress and development of Northern Nigeria.”
